Boulder Brands leases third floor of 1600 Pearl St. building

Natural foods company Boulder Brands Inc. has leased an 18,000-square-foot space in downtown Boulder for its corporate headquarters, company officials said Thursday.

Boulder Brands (Nasdaq: BDBD), which makes products such as Smart Balance spreads and Udi's gluten-free bread, will be the third floor tenant at 1600 Pearl St., the building that once housed Borders Books & Music and now has tenants such as Symplified and SolidFire. The 18,309-square-foot third floor currently is under construction.

Officials for Boulder Brands, which was formerly known as Smart Balance Inc. until earlier this year, said last fall that the firm would move its headquarters to Boulder from New Jersey and would base its headquarters in downtown Boulder.

About 60 people will work at the downtown Boulder site when construction is completed this fall, Boulder Brands officials said.

"Boulder Brands looks forward to moving our principal corporate offices to Pearl Street in downtownBoulder, CO this fall," Steve Hughes, chief executive officer of Boulder Brands said in a statement. "Our employees are excited about the opportunity to expand our relationship with the community as Boulder continues to grow as 'the Silicon Valley of Natural Foods.'"

When Smart Balance announced its reorganization last fall, company officials said they would maintain an office in New Jersey, for its finance and back office operations, and that the company closed a former Glutino office in Lawrence, Mass. Smart Balance plans to close a corporate office for the recently acquired Udi's and move those employees to expanded facilities in Aurora and to Boulder.

Seven years ago, Hughes and business partner Jim Lewis formed Boulder Specialty Brands Inc. as a company focused on acquiring food and beverage companies. The two took the company to the public markets to fund its operations, and at the end of 2005, Boulder Specialty Brands had raised $102.1 million in an initial public offering.

A year later, Boulder Specialty Brands used a combination of a private sale of its stock, proceeds from a public stock sale and debt to fund a $465 million acquisition of New Jersey-based GFA Brands Inc., which made Smart Balance and Earth Balance spread products.

The company acquired Glutino Food Group in 2011, snapped up Udi's last year and most recently paid $3.9 million for Davies Bakery, a United Kingdom-based gluten-free bakery.

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